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City Opera Is to Shed Its Past, Not Store It

Daniel Okulitch and Stefania Dovhan in City Opera’s 2009 “Don Giovanni,” which the Portland Opera has been told it can dispose of.Credit
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

New York City Opera, which has been seeking to forge a new identity since casting off from Lincoln Center two seasons ago, now appears ready to shed some of the tangible — and expensive — vestiges of its venerable past: the sets and costumes of many of its old productions.

City Opera has asked the Glimmerglass Festival, which jointly produced about two dozen City Opera shows, to come and claim those production materials. The company also told the Portland Opera, which is renting its 2009 “Don Giovanni,” to dispose of it. And City Opera is in talks with a broker about selling other productions.

“The big picture is, we are looking at more cost-efficient models for storing our revival productions going forward,” said George Steel, City Opera’s general manager and artistic director. At a cost of more than $500,000 a year, the warehouse in North Bergen, N.J., that contains the old productions is, Mr. Steel said, “an extremely expensive way to store things.”

He added, “We’re looking at a number of different ways to get rid of, or find new homes for, productions,” including selling some. He left open the possibility that some sets would be thrown away, but declined to say how many productions would be disposed of, or which ones would be revived.

“Here you are, trying to weasel your way into our artistic planning,” he said in a telephone interview. He said the goal was to auction off or sell as much of the material as possible.

He said one way to save money on storage would be to keep productions that are scheduled for revival in trucks.

City Opera’s financial difficulties prompted the move from the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, along with shrinking the season to just 16 performances and 4 productions, a far cry from the 15 or so productions and scores of performances just a decade ago. The company also moved its administrative offices to less expensive quarters in Lower Manhattan. Most of its administrators and artistic personnel have turned over.

The paring down makes sense, given the company’s need to save money and its new focus as a forward-looking presenter of new productions.

“I think it’s incredibly strong artistically to have a season entirely of new productions,” Mr. Steel said. He also pointed out that the budget was balanced and that the performances last year — held in several small to midsize theaters around the city — sold out.

Mr. Steel said that only “a very, very small number” of productions in the house would ever be revived and that other productions that are eliminated — like the “Don Giovanni” in Portland — could be reconstructed at a lower cost. Still other productions are missing pieces, he said, and a 1985 warehouse fire destroyed many costumes. The company’s Web site lists more than 90 productions available for rental.

But the idea of eliminating old productions en masse will pain those who lament New York City Opera’s demise as a major repertory company and savor its past — the days of Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo and Julius Rudel — and its founding in 1943 by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia as the “people’s opera.”

Mr. Rudel, who has been a vocal opponent of Mr. Steel’s direction, called the loss of old productions “horrendous,” adding: “It puts the final nail in the coffin. It means there is no more company.”

Old City Opera productions include several with sets designed by Maurice Sendak; Renata Scotto’s 1995 “Traviata”; a 1982 “Candide” directed by Harold Prince; and works created for Ms. Sills, including Donizetti’s Stuart trilogy — “Anna Bolena,” “Maria Stuarda” and “Roberto Devereux” — and a 1968 “Manon.”

Eliminating the “Don Giovanni,” a well-reviewed, successful version from just 2009, caught the Portland Opera’s production director by surprise. That official, Laura Hassell, said that City Opera had asked for the production to be destroyed once Portland was done with it. Ms. Hassell said such a request was not unusual for a company that did not want to continue storing something. But “it does seem soon for them to get rid of it,” she added.

Sherwin M. Goldman, the president of the board of Glimmerglass and a former City Opera executive producer, said City Opera officials asked Glimmerglass to take possession of their co-productions. “We’ve been informed at Glimmerglass that if we want any of the co-productions, we should come get ’em,” he said, or they will be thrown out. “That’s my understanding.”

Mr. Steel at first acknowledged that whatever Glimmerglass does not take will be discarded, but called back to say that City Opera would try to dispose of anything left “in the best possible way.”

Mr. Goldman said Glimmerglass had not yet come up with a plan. “It’s a very serious choice that they’re making,” he continued, “because great companies traditionally have saved their productions for potential revivals.” He noted that some set designers used elements of past productions to create new shows.

He said City Opera had also asked him to remove his own production of “Porgy and Bess,” and he is trying to find a home for it.

The company’s musicals may also be on the block. The Lyric Stage of Dallas recently bought City Opera’s “Most Happy Fella” after first discussing a rental. Steven Jones, the Lyric Stage’s founding producer, said that when he asked what other musicals were for sale, he was told by a City Opera official that the company was negotiating with a broker, which would handle any sales if hired.

Mr. Steel took issue with examining the fate of City Opera’s production stock. “I feel like you’re creating a false story,” he said. “It’s been a complicated money loser for a long time, and we’re trying to sort it out.”

A version of this article appears in print on October 3, 2012, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: City Opera Is to Shed Its Past, Not Store It. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe